Saw it the day it opened, then went back with an old friend who currently lives in California. It is well worth the time. Even his contact sheets are interesting. Take your time, and see it all.
I've also seen Vermeer's "The Milkmaid" a couple of times. That's one heck of a painting. The color, composition, and level of detail, are simply stunning. Don't forget to check out some of the other painting in the exhibit while you're there.
Frank, we're on the same page.
I took my wife and older daughter to see both the Frank and Vermeer exhibitions (for my daughter, primarily the Vermeer paintings, because she just read "Chasing Vermeer" for her 5th grade class). The selected paintings on view were nothing short of beautiful. And, seeing them within the context of some of the artist's contemporaries' works was also enlightening. We participated in a related family orientation presented by the museum's education department.
Onto Robert Frank. I've been looking forward to seeing this collection ("The Americans") in its entirety for a long time. I was pleased to see the various earlier projects and "loose" series leading up to the Guggenheim-funded trips(s). Seeing first-hand, and up-close, related documents supporting the project -- contact sheets, original draft applications for the Guggenheim Fellowship, application edits by Walker Evans, personal letters hand-written to Evans from the road, drafts to the introduction by Jack Kerouac, and the various international incarnations of the book -- all proved to be academically exhilarating, as well.
The framed individual photographs hang in different dimensions, linearly throughout 3-4 rooms, creating a completely different experience from that of viewing the book. The book, for me, has the feel and experience of a moving picture (a flick) whereby one is guided through a succinct narrative -- scene -- only one picture at a time.
The exhibition is a reprieve from that, where one has the opportunity to take in image groups, lateral juxtapositions, discover individual details not revealed in book form, and witness (as if one's there with the photographer) the gritty disenfranchisement of the not-so-dreamy post-war years in this country, that could've only been seen through the eyes of a foreigner (although Frank arrived in the States in 1947, I think).
The rooms were a little crowded and stuffy, and flow a little confusing when following the series sequencing, but that's a very minor complaint (if one, at all). Nonetheless, I loved it. Should anyone here have the opportunity to visit this exhibition, do so. It's a jewel and rarity. I think it's also topical, in the sense that many of today's socio-political and cultural issues are reflected in photographs recorded more than fifty years ago. Like it or not, it's as if we, as Americans, are looking in the mirror, and not just being looked at. Go see it.
The recently reissued book, by Steidl, is lovely to hold and study. I bought it last year, in anticipation of visiting the exhibition. The reproductions are meticulously printed (as is just about everything published by Steidl), and sits on the shelf next to my Aperture edition of "The Americans" (visually, I prefer the former).
Sounds like a great day. Two of my favorite creators of pictures ever. Both of them are definitely top five for me.
